On Wednesday, the provincial government announced its commitment to the plan’s business case, and predicted that an environmental assessment will be complete by the fall of 2014.

“This includes identifying the most appropriate route and examining state-of-the-art transportation technology options to better connect residents and businesses between London and Toronto,” the Liberal government said in a press release.

The goal is to eventually have all-day high-speed rail service that connects Toronto, Pearson International Airport, the Waterloo Region and London — as well as all-day, two-way service every 15 minutes on all GO lines.

The high-speed system would have trains travelling faster than 300 km/h.

According to the government, the plan won’t increase gas taxes, the HST, or personal income taxes for low and middle-income earners.

According to Dilkens, if the province is successful with the project, it will increase the likelihood of the line eventually reaching Windsor.

As to why the concept as it stands doesn’t include Windsor, Dilkens said cost is probably the biggest issue.

“It’s a multi-billion-dollar project,” he said. “It’d have to go twice the distance to come to Windsor.”

“I don’t feel slighted by the fact that they’re not going to come to Windsor on the first pass. What they need to do is get part of it going, and the other pieces can be added … The hardest part is to start, and there have been so many false-starts and so many studies on this.”

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